Trump, on Twitter, presses Congress on food-stamp work requirements

President Donald Trump on Thursday urged House and Senate leaders to include controversial work requirements for food-stamp recipients as lawmakers get ready to hash out the final language of the $867 billion farm bill.

"When the House and Senate meet on the very important Farm Bill – we love our farmers - hopefully they will be able to leave the WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR FOOD STAMPS PROVISION that the House approved," the president tweeted Thursday afternoon.

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Trump again suggested that the Senate go to 51 votes — an apparent recognition of the fact that new work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would not attract the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture to overcome a filibuster.

House and Senate leaders are just beginning what's expected to be a tough conference process. The House very narrowly passed a bill that would impose stricter work requirements on about 5 million to 7 million able-bodied adults in June. But the Senate, which passed its own bill last month, has been clear that such changes to SNAP, still commonly known to many as food stamps, are not politically feasible.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants to see a farm bill conference report ready after Labor Day — an ambitious timeline. The current farm bill expires Sept. 30.

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The fact that Trump is weighing in is seen as a boost to House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas)'s position going into negotiations, particularly because the three other key lawmakers are staunchly opposed to the House bill’s approach to food stamp policy. Ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) has railed against the House bill as extreme and successfully rallied Democrats to unanimously oppose it both times the House voted on the measure.

On the Senate side, Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) have both been firm about their side of the equation: A bill with big changes to SNAP simply can’t garner the 60 votes needed to advance — a reality that could imperil the whole bill without a compromise.

It’s not the first time Trump has used his Twitter account to press for stricter work requirements — a big priority for House Speaker Paul Ryan that’s become so divisive in the House that the bill, which is usually strongly bipartisan, failed on its first attempt before finally narrowly passing in June.

After the bill cleared the House, Trump tweeted enthusiastically: “So happy to see work requirements included. Big win for the farmers!”